Interview ~ Rosa Picnic

I’m a 45 years old Portuguese woman; I was born in Angola, one of the Portuguese colonies, with the war our family had to go way and leave everything behind, I guess I can say I was a refugee at a very early stage at my life. Then I grow up in the gorgeous island São Miguel in Azores until I was 10 at that point my parents decide to come to Lisbon, I live here since then. Happily. I still remember things from Angola since I only left by the age of 4, so I think African blood runs in my veins. I learned to swim in the gorgeous beaches of Namibe. A huge mark in my life.

1) Tell us a little about yourself, and your calling as a creative?

My mother kept my drawings; I started drawing very early, and enjoying. My first influences were Quino’s books, my mother had many, and before I could read I watched them for hours making my own stories. I prefer them to the Anita’s books. When I went to school, my art teachers always noticed my works at a very positive way. Teachers are so important in our lives. As a teenager I began to spend all my afternoons drawing, my father was always my best critic. Ok, later at art history class I was introduced to Turner’s paintings, my first painter love, then Bosch, then the impressionists, Van Gogh, the Dali and finally, the greatest, Picasso. What a clever and incredible artist, Guernica, wow! I was having the best time of my life at final years of high school, great art lessons, great teachers, we could smoke in classes, leave if we weren’t in the mood, I was an hippie at the time, long dresses, long hair, John Lennon glasses, I like grass, sitting bare foot in the grass, I mean, and I want to be an artist, like Coppola movie character played by Nick Nolte.. I decided I want to go to fine art college, but the admission work didn’t went well, I started to date and began working has an AutoCAD designer in architecture studios. I forget about my dream of being an artist.

I began doing my works about two year ago, I stopped doing anything for more than 20 years, then my guy insist with me and offered some drawing materials. Little by little I began to draw again. At first I stood in front of my pc looking at a blank Corel file, yes Corel at that time, and didn’t know what to do, but things began to grow inside naturally. I do what I’m pleased to do and always having fun, laughing hard sometimes. I’m influenced by music (!) huge part of what I am, poetry, modern dance, everything that moves me, I’m a sponge. Of course I like to draw and paint, but that leaves me in a very stressful state, because I’m impatient and I want it all and now. Working digital gives me the rush I need.

3) Describe your workspace? What is the one thing there you can’t live without?

A glass desk near the window at my office at home, and every pc I can get my hands on it, when doodling, a new word for me, it’s everywhere, paper towels at restaurants, tickets, pieces of paper. I can’t live without music!!! Music is my best friend.

4) Tell us what you do to get creative? Stay creative?

These days creating are an addiction, if I don’t create anything I get anxious and sad. I live, therefore I create. 😀

5) When did you decide you wanted to be an artist? And has the internet become a good or bad aspect to life as an artist?

The first part of the question, I think I answered before. Internet is a huge thing, to art, to me, it gave me the tools to grow myself as an “artist”, I must confess I don’t like call myself an artist. But anyway, I’m thinking if it was internet that pulls me to start again creating.

The art, the people behind it, the knowledge, the personal growing… Is there better way to express ourselves? I think art is a second language we all have. We all have it. 🙂

7) What do you dislike about the world of art?

Humm the question I don’t like. I think what I don’t like in art world is the same thing I don´t like in life. Bad vibes, bad feelings, bad behavior. Artists should be kind to one another, like in life, a secret envy is healthy, but by helping others we are helping ourselves. Remember the cubism phase of Picasso and his friends in Paris, helping each other, but secretly envying, that’s healthy, look what they have become.

9) You have been given a room in a house to paint! Each wall has to be a different colour! Which colours do you choose and why?

I had to being painting the walls every week, because I fall in love for a certain ton of blue or pink almost every day, then I discover how well yellow looks with black, than the red hit’s me hard, Jesus it’s a struggle.

10) You are being sent to a desert island and are told you can decorate your hut with 5 famous paintings. Which do you choose and why?

Black In Deep Red by Mark Rothko, Guernica by Picasso, The Matter of Time by Richard Serra (it’s not a painting but I love it), The Fighting Temeraire by Turner and Lunia Czechovska by Modigliani. This on the living room on the hut, on the bedroom, Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee a Second Before Awakening by Dali, Artist and His Bride by Chagall Marc, Duchess by Julia Lillard, Swallows the Poisoned Apple by Paula Rego… Because they are wonderful. Ah! The Kiss by Klimt, anywhere on the hut.